Pope Confesses That Clergy Have Abused Nuns, Including As Sex Slaves

Updated September 4, 2021

They say that one bad apple doesn't spoil the whole bunch, but for the Catholic Church, the bad apples have been particularly rotten, and the more we learn, the more we realize that good portions of the bunch were letting them get away with it. If you don't want to spoil the bunch, you've got to take the rotten apples out. In the Church, the rot spread.

The worst part is that we're still learning more and new ways that things went bad and good people suffered. But the Church is finally owning up to some of it.

In shocking recent remarks, Pope Francis admitted that clergy in the Catholic Church have sexually abused nuns, including keeping them as sex slaves in one case.

Unsplash | Ashwin Vaswani

Speaking to reporters while on a historic visit to the United Arab Emirates, the Pope attributed the Church's ongoing problems to a culture of "seeing women as second class citizens," according to the BBC.

Of course, for years the Catholic Church has been embroiled in sex abuse scandals across the globe involving decades of cover-ups.

Wikimedia | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pope_Francis_in_March_2013.jpg

However, this was the Pope's first public acknowledgement of a problem with the Church's nuns.

He said that the congregation at which sex slavery occurred had been dissolved by Pope Benedict, but also said that sexual abuse of nuns in the Church was an ongoing problem.

Unsplash | Kai Pilger

"I think it's still taking place because it's not as though the moment you become aware of something it goes away," he said.

The pope's admission comes on the heels of a damning article written for the Vatican's women's magazine.

Wikimedia | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pope_Francis_at_Varginha_(3).jpg

The article, published in Women Church World, makes some horrific allegations as it condemned the abuse of nuns, saying that in some cases, nuns had abortions or gave birth to children not recognized by their fathers after enduring sexual abuse.

According to the article, the #MeToo movement has helped many abused women come forward in the Church.

Unsplash | Jacob Bentzinger

"If the church continues to close its eyes to the scandal — made even worse by the fact that abuse of women brings about procreation and is therefore at the origin of forced abortions and children who aren't recognised by priests — the condition of oppression of women in the church will never change," wrote the magazine's editor, Lucetta Scaraffia.

The article also discussed how Pope Francis’ acknowledgement and understanding of the abuse at hand might be helpful.

“If you point to power, to clericalism, the abuse against religious sisters takes on another aspect and can finally be recognised for what it is:" it reads, "that is an act of power in which touch becomes a violation of one's personal intimacy."

Even the International Union of Superiors General, a collective that represents over half a million religious women worldwide, came forward in 2017 to condemn this abuse.

Unsplash | Jeroen Wehkamp

“We condemn those who support the culture of silence and secrecy, often under the guise of ‘protection’ of an institution’s reputation or naming it ‘part of one’s culture,”’ they said.

Indeed, the Church is having to deal with many incidents publicly as of late, such as a bishop in India who was arrested for allegedly raping a nun 13 times.

Unsplash | James Coleman

The nun in question only filed a police complaint after repeatedly appealing to the Church to no effect.

Nuns came out in droves to protest on her behalf, after which many of them received transfer notices they believe was an effort to silence them.

Facebook | Bishop Franco Mulakkal

Bishop Franco Mulakkal was arrested, and detained for 21 days for his crimes, however was soon granted conditional bail and released.

Mulakkal has denied the allegations, CNN reports.

Vatican officials have launched an investigation into priests abusing nuns in Chile as well.

Wikimedia Commons

The nation, already reeling from revelations of decades of child abuse at the hands of predatory Catholic priests, learned that nuns had been forced out of the order after denouncing their superiors for sexual abuse.

Pope Francis has already dismissed several bishops in Chile as part of an effort to clean up the country's churches, PBS NewsHour reports.

And in July 2018, the Associated Press published a huge article exposing decades of abuse of nuns across the globe.

Unsplash | Vladimir Šoić

"An AP examination has found that cases have emerged in Europe, Africa, South America and Asia, demonstrating that the problem is global and pervasive, thanks to the universal tradition of sisters’ second-class status in the Catholic Church and their ingrained subservience to the men who run it," the article read.

After Pope Francis's statement about sex slavery, a Vatican spokesperson sought to clarify his remarks.

Unsplash | Nacho Arteaga

Alessandro Gisotti said that Pope Francis "spoke of 'sexual slavery' to mean 'manipulation' or a type of abuse of power that is reflected in a sexual abuse," according to the CBC.

This controversy comes on the heels on a long-brewing exposé by the Boston Globe newspaper detailing widespread sexual abuse and pedophilia in the Catholic Church.

Unsplash | JF Martin

The investigation found that pedophile priests were being shifted from state to state to avoid repercussions of their heinous crimes, and to continue practicing — and likely abusing — after relocation.

When it comes to abuse in the Church, it seems like there is an avoidance of accountability, and rarely a case of justice for the victims at hand.

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However, with Pope Francis at the helm, who seems willing to acknowledge and address the plague of sexual abuse in this institution, along with the brave voices of survivors who are speaking out, there is hope, to say the least.

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